


The World's Not Waiting

by truantwaves



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Eventual Smut, M/M, genuinely dont know where this story is going, probably gonna be slow burn mutual pining!, so like be prepared for anything! its van days
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26824264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truantwaves/pseuds/truantwaves
Summary: Van day's fob antics with Patrick and Pete's budding relationship intermixed
Relationships: Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. No Other Reason

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the tags, I don't really know where this is going! I've been sooo bored at home and so wrote this up months ago and just rediscovered it and liked it enough to post it here! Hopefully I will post more than a chapter haha

Patrick wasn’t exactly having the most ideal day. No, a day that started with him waking up to his head hitting a window to open his eyes and see Joe and Pete fighting over the last clean pair of boxers beside him was not ideal. Neither was a day where they got turned away from the only motel in this small shitty town because apparently Pete’s mom forgot to wire him money. The icing on top of the cake was getting chased from a Burger King parking lot for loitering when they were just trying to figure out where to sleep! Not to mention that now he was holding onto his door for dear life as the van decided it wanted to start detaching parts of itself. No, his day was not ideal.  
The side of him by the door was numb, he was sure of it, as the icy midwestern air blasted him. Pete Wentz was snuggled up warmly into his other side. Asshole. He won the coin toss for who got the comfiest blanket this time. Patrick swore he cheated. But he insisted on ‘sharing’ with Patrick, which really just felt like gloating to him now.

  
“I think we can get away with parking here” Joe finally announced as he pulled into some random dim parking lot, the outline of a building looking to be miles away from their spot. Picturesque, truly. Patrick chuckled to himself.  
“You got a better idea, dude?”  
“No… No… Just admiring how glamorous the life of a Rockstar is”  
“You didn’t have to join the band, dude.” Patrick inhaled sharply at this response and bit his tongue, ending the conversation with a kick to Joe’s seat. He understood, they were all stressed. They were supposed to have beds tonight.  
  
“Pete, wake up. We have to move” Patrick said to him, nudging his shoulder as he let go of the door that flung itself open like the van was ready to vomit them all out. Patrick didn’t blame it.  
“Comfy” was all Pete replied with as Patrick climbed out of the van with Andy and Joe.  
“I couldn’t give less of a shit how comfortable you are right now, Peter. Get out of the van.”

See, they had to fold the seats down and rearrange all their equipment in a way where the four of them could lay down and not be cramped in the most uncomfortable positions imaginable. Pete didn’t seem to care as he made sure to clamber his way out of the van as slowly as possible. They all got to work playing this game of Tetris and by the end Patrick swore he had frozen solid. They were all cold, of course. It was fucking freezing. Thankfully, Joe and Andy managed to get the door duct taped shut for Patricks sanity before they all got in.

“Can you run the heater?” Patrick asked someone… anyone. Maybe god at this point, he didn’t know.  
“We have blankets for a reason, Patrick” was the reply he received, which he scoffed at and adjusted again so he was facing away from them all.

Patrick could feel someone's feet were right by his own, he was also aware of a presence right behind him and had no clue where the third guy was. He didn’t care, especially if it was Pete. He was just glad he wasn’t in the middle of them all.

He wished he could say he was surprised when his eyes peeled open halfway through his ever so restful sleep and felt Pete behind him. How could he tell it was Pete? Well, his arms were around Patrick's waist unabashedly and he had his face shoved into the back of Patricks neck. Only Pete dare do anything like that. And maybe it was because he was awake too right now, and noticed how Patrick didn’t pull away. In fact, he pressed ever so closer to Pete and sighed quietly to himself. Maybe it was because even when they were both awake he put up with how clingy he was, how he kissed his neck sloppily on stage and always talked of romance with Patrick to interviewers and needy fans online. But Patrick was just cold, and putting up with all of that was easier than pushing it away. 

Patrick couldn’t help but have this aching in the back of his mind to turn around and hide his face into Pete’s chest to continue sleeping. He did that alone in motel rooms or when he was really sad and no one was looking. Pete would let him hide in his hoodie for a minute and the world didn’t feel too heavy. But again, it was just when he was homesick or tired. No other reason. Just best friend stuff.

It was daybreak by the time Patrick stopped thinking about all of this, only because he heard the noise of tape ripping and their door falling open and then seconds later a cold blast of air hit his exposed face.

“Oh fuck off” he groaned, shifting to sit up which ultimately disturbed all of them. Patrick didn’t know how anybody slept in the arrangement.  
“Did an amp fall on someone?” Andy questioned, Patrick groaned in reply as he searched for his glasses. His hand accidentally brushed Petes as he tried to find them, and before he could even think that interaction through he felt a hand gently gliding the glasses onto his face.  
  
“Seriously, are you okay?” Pete asked him after doing this, and Patrick was beet red.  
“Yeah of course I’m fine. It was the door.” He nearly snapped back as he moved to climb out of the van to assess the damage.

“How much money do we have to fix that?” Patrick questioned, already knowing that the answer hollered back at him would be something like ‘asshole’ or ‘dickwad’ or something similarly creative. All he got back was a grunt from Joe.

“Well… Who needs that many doors, huh? I like this change.” Pete piped up after they were all out of the van staring at the door. Joe smacked Petes arm.  
“Fuck off… I’ll find a phone at the nearest gas station and call my mom. We’ll probably have to sleep at a groupies tonight or something. Pete can figure that out.” Joe decided after they all stared at the broken van for what felt like an eternity.

Joe also decided he and Andy would be better off walking to the nearest gas station together, leaving Pete and Patrick alone to watch the van. So, once again Patrick was having a less than ideal day. 

Patrick loved Pete, he really did, he might never admit it anywhere but those quiet motel nights or the occasional time his heart ached for Pete so bad he had to voice it, but he loved him. But he'd be lying if he said Pete Wentz was not one of the most intolerable bastards on Earth.

"I really gotta piss dude"  
"That's awesome, Pete. I'm not letting you piss in the van."  
"But I can't leave you alone in some weird parking lot in a gross small town. We have to stick together."  
"I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing will happen to me if you go into that restaurant across the street to piss"  
"Gotta protect our most precious asset, I refuse to leave" Pete decided, despite Patricks sound logic, and the grin on his face made Patrick wanna punch him silly. But instead he rolled his eyes and climbed into the seat farthest away from Pete.

"Aww common Patrick I just called you precious! I deserve some love for that!" he whined back at Patrick, who replied to Pete with a halfhearted grunt.  
"A 'thank you, Pete' or 'I appreciate that' would be nice?" Pete continued, and Patrick was resigned to just ignoring him for now.  
"An 'I love you for keeping me warm all night because you were worried I'd freeze to death' would be nice too" he continued, and for some reason hearing that made Patrick's heart beat a little faster, but he stayed quiet.

"Well, regardless, I hope you were warm. I don't want you getting a cold... cause you're our singer, y'know. Can't get sick. No other reason." Pete finished, and he sounded so tender at the beginning of that sentence that Patrick could almost pretend for a moment that that tenderness was a regular thing. The last statement though... that was familiar. They were affectionate for purely practical reasons... nothing else. Occasional comfort and safety. No other reason.


	2. No Hard Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all who read this first chapter of this! It got a lot more reception that I was expecting, so it is definitely appreciated! I hope you enjoy this chapter!  
> (comments and kudos are always appreciated btw!)

Joe's mom ended up being able to help them pay for a new door as soon as possible, the details of this Patrick did not know nor did he particularly care. That door was current enemy number one, and with it getting fixed the same day it broke? He could finally rid that headache. Now, the only pain in his ass was Pete. Who would not go away so easy.

Not that Patrick wanted him to or anything, he loved Pete. Like a brother. 

Getting a new door installed on the van ended up taking much longer than any of the four of them anticipated, setting them back at least three hours. Okay, maybe that was also a pain in Patricks ass but a very easily solvable one. The fix for not being late to soundcheck in Dayton, two hours away, might not have been the smartest but with Pete driving they all agreed to have him speed down the freeway. 

Luckily for them, the freeway was fairly empty and perfect for illegal activity. Unluckily, they were still late but by twenty minutes and not a whole hour or more. Patrick didn't quite understand why they needed to soundcheck at places like this... shitty little bars and clubs that reeked of alcohol and had seemingly the stickiest floors on the planet. Each venue's floors were more of a nightmare than the last. And it seemed a common ideology held by audience members at these shows was, 'live music is live music.' They could be shitty and still make the crowd go crazy with their impressive six song setlist. 

"Did you guys know, when Patrick sleeps really well he snores like a bear?" Pete decided to let Joe and Andy know once they were eating their glorious taco bell lunch inside the van.

"That was always him? I thought it was you!" Joe proclaimed back through laughs, Andy was also laughing at this. Patrick failed to find the humor in his sleeping habits, and shot Pete a glare. 

"Would it make you feel better if I said it was cute?" Pete asked once he saw Patrick, grinning at him like this was the absolute funniest thing ever. It wasn't. Maybe to three sleep deprived assholes it was, but it was not to Patrick. 

"I think that would make me wanna punch you even more, actually, Peter." 

"Aww... 'Peter'... The little guy's angry..." Pete continued to tease, mercilessly. Patrick very nearly did attack him right then and there, fuck up whatever burrito he was eating and give him a black eye or something impressive like that. But he managed to abstain and instead just snarl something that vaguely sounded like 'fuck you'. This made all three of them chuckle too. 

Aside from all of the verbal teasing Pete had been pulling, like all of that. He had also decided tormenting Patrick with a video camera was a necessary addition to van life. Joe and Andy seemed to find it funny, and sometimes Patrick did too, honestly, the antics Pete would get up to just for the camera. Until it involved him getting 'kidnapped' or other ridiculous things like that.

It wasn't too long after they had all finished eating when Patrick decided to take a nap while they hung around in the van, wasting time until the show. Pete took this as a perfect opportunity to record Patrick sleeping. 

He probably wouldn't have woken up and therefore not known about it until later, when it was too late to beat Pete up for it. But... Pete Wentz didn't necessarily know how to do anything in moderation or do a single thing subtly. So he talked... during the entire recording pretty much. The talking started in a soft whisper, saying purposefully creepy things (hopefully just for the camera), but progressively Pete was saying it all louder. Patrick was almost a million percent positive this was on purpose, since the louder phrases were less creepy and more... tender? Things Pete knew would make Patrick madder than saying weird shit. 

"He looks like an angel" 

"What a babe" 

"I hope he's having sweet dreams" and that was when Patrick started to wake up. 

He was very confused at first, as anyone would be in this situation. After the confusion subsided and he, sort of, got a grasp on the situation at hand, Pete was hovering over him with a camera murmuring tender things to him as he slept, he felt mad. Fucking livid. Patrick's eyes opened and his face contorted into a look that was a mix between embarrassed, horrified and enraged as instinctively a hand flew out to knock the camera from Pete's hands before that same hand struck Pete's face. 

Maybe it was the confusing mini-crush Patrick had on Pete that he was repressing, or the fact Pete was the most annoying friend he had ever had, but Patrick snapped. He made a point to kick at Pete too, who was now laughing and trying to get Patrick to stop. Apparently, the other two were also present for this and now laughing as Patrick was squirming around to sit up so he could truly get at his perpetrator. 

They all stopped laughing when this happened and he got an actual good punch in at Pete's perfect fucking face that sent his head bumping with a loud thud into the window behind him. Patrick was being told to stop, but he was just so pissed that this gorgeous asshole had the audacity to record him while he slept and say things like that to him? While Andy and Joe were with him too? It was humiliating. 

Patrick was not the best fighter out of the three of them, and was the smallest, so he wasn't hard to hold back after the one good punch. Pete was actually the one holding him down by his wrists, straddling him, of course. 

"What's your problem, dude? It was a joke. Calm down." Pete murmured to him after getting Patrick locked in this position, which made Patrick finally look up at Pete and calm down. He had hit Pete's nose, apparently, and evidently he had made it bleed. He wasn't sure if he should feel proud or guilty about that. 

"Jokes are supposed to be funny" 

"It was until you decided to freak out and punch me! It wasn't even my idea, it was theirs." 

Patrick was almost sure that was supposed to make him feel better, or at least make him direct his anger at the 'them' in question. But, oddly, it made his heart ache a little. Pete hadn't actually wanted to watch him sleep... or say those things to him. Not even as his own original joke. 

"Whatever" He grumbled, watching as Pete loosened his grip on his wrists but stayed straddling him so he couldn't move. 

"'Whatever' is not what I say to people I punch unfairly." Pete said to him, quirking a brow expectantly. Patrick was so damn stubborn, he drew his mouth into a thin line and stared directly at Pete, not saying a thing. He, instead, managed to just wiggle out from under Pete after a lot of maneuvering. 

For the rest of their 'chill time' before the show, Pete and Patrick didn't say a word to each other. During the show, Pete and Patrick hardly looked at each other. And Pete didn't pull a classic Wentz move and come up to Patrick to kiss his neck or borderline hump him on stage. Patrick never thought he'd miss that. 

Patrick, once laying in the silent van as they cruised their way off to the next city and venue, was well aware he was the immature one now. He overreacted and then over-overreacted to being told to apologize. The reality of this continued to crush him as Pete didn't even try to steal some of his blanket, or ask what he was playing or listening to on his CD player. He also never thought he'd miss those things.

* * *

Despite his extremely guilty conscience, Patrick managed to get some sleep that night on their drive from Ohio to New York. He didn't sleep for long, both from the bumpy roads and state of his mind right now.  
They had fought before, physically and verbally several times. But they always apologized. Why didn't he apologize? He should've just said sorry. He really didn't know why he punched Pete in the first place, thinking back on it. He was frightened, yeah, but not 'punch my best friend in the face' scared. And in retrospect he probably would've found that irritating, yeah, but funny. If it weren't for... whatever reason his heart had ached when Pete said doing it wasn't even his idea. He would've found it funny if it weren't for whatever reason he was sad when Pete didn't press his lips against Patricks sweaty skin and kiss at it like his life depended on it, he would've found it funny if he didn't have that aching in his chest whenever he looked at Pete these past couple weeks on the road. But instead he was disappointed Pete didn't want to watch him sleep and didn't want to say he looked like an angel when he slept.  
Patrick thought this through for a while, but was too terrified to come to the conclusion he was circling around. Instead,he sat up and rest his forehead against the cool glass of the window, staring out at the world. It was dark, somewhere between Ohio and New York, and he couldn't make out any land features. But he pretended he was staring at something really interesting, as if he had to keep up a facade, Andy was focused on driving and the other two were asleep still.   
Well, he thought they were, until he heard some readjusting beside him. He looked to see Pete sitting up, eyes wide open too. Patrick offered a soft smile that was not returned.  
  
"You can't be mad at me forever" He whispered to Pete, feeling glad they were alone in the very back seat so neither of the others heard them.  
"Yes I can, you punched me"  
"I've punched you before"  
"You punched me, made my nose bleed and then didn't apologize for it even though you were acting weird in the first place."  
"Okay... You're right. But if my memory serves me right you didn't apologize either."  
"You didn't give me a chance before you were trying to punch me out of the van, Patrick."  
Patrick sighed at this, biting tentatively at his bottom lip. Hearing his name out of Petes mouth had never really felt special, not until recently. Hearing it made that ache return.   
  
"I'm sorry for punching you and overreacting and acting weird, okay? I'm really fucking sorry for being a shitty friend right then. It was funny, I would've thought it was funny if..."  
"If...?" Pete questioned, wanting to hear the rest of this apology before accepting it.  
"If I hadn't been so surprised and... and embarrassed, I guess?" Patrick lied, well, that was also true. He just didn't include the words he was even too afraid to think. If only I didn't have a crush on you.  
"Yeah, that makes sense. I'm sorry for scaring you, probably should've pulled a less intrusive prank." Pete replied, and it felt like things were fine again. Well, minus that mysterious aching in Patricks chest. Aside from that, he had Pete back and everything felt okay.

  
"It's alright, again in retrospect it is funny. It wasn't even your idea."  
"Well... It wasn't my idea to film it." The bassist clarified, which felt like a slap to the face to Patrick at first as that implied that Pete was just gonna... watch Patrick sleep and whisper things to him for no reason?  
"You wanted to do that for no reason?"  
"I thought it'd be funny! A funny thing for just us guys, a small prank. But they said I should film your reaction to the like... 'romantic' stuff I was telling you. So I started to film and switched to creepy stuff, and then switched back when you didn't wake up." He continued to explain, which made Patrick feel like his head was exploding.  
Pete's original intention, as a 'joke' was to murmur loving words to him as he slept but then switched to creepy when he knew Andy and Joe were intently watching and a camera was present? Patrick, though he refused to admit his newfound feelings for the older of the two, couldn't help but feel as if he was reading too deep into that. He should be offended Pete was using cutesy things like calling him an angel as a joke, but for some reason it made him smile a little.  
  
"But you were right earlier... a joke is supposed to be funny and like it was totally but you didn't find it funny, so I won't do it again. Just wish you weren't so touchy all the time."  
"I wish that too sometimes, Pete"  
"It's alright, things have been tough recently. I bet that kinda pushed you over the edge after being late to soundcheck and stuff. I'm homesick and I bet you are too so... no hard feelings, I promise."  
Patrick nodded in reply to this and Pete gave him a smile, he smiled back and went back to looking out the window to mull over this new information as well as all of the confusing, heart-aching feelings he was thinking about earlier.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this chapter was a little short, I'm already working on the next couple if anyone reads it and likes it so! stay tuned!


End file.
